“…In recent studies on the transformation of methyl ketoxime acetates, transition-metal-catalysts such as copper, [11] iron, [12] ruthenium, [13] and others [14] were generally employed to activate NÀO bond of oximes, while few examples used iodine reagents. [15] Very recently, we discovered a copper-catalyzed system for the bis-annulation of ketoximes with elemental sulfur and benzaldehydes, in which the utilized copper catalyst played a key role to activate ketoxime acetates since only trace amounts of products were observed in the absence of a copper salt [16] (Figure 2, top). Interestingly, when we replaced benzaldehyde with 4-methylpyridine, the target bis-annulation was equally effective with or without the addition of a copper catalyst.…”